Thunder – February 18, 1999

This show has to be
better than Nitro. I really do not thing it’s possible for a show to
be worse than the one that I watched on Monday. It completely missed
on everything it was trying to do and made everyone in WCW seem very
stupid. Last week’s Thunder wasn’t much better, meaning tonight has
to be better. It’s also the go home show for SuperBrawl. Let’s get
to it.

We open with clips from
Hogan vs. Piper on Monday.

The announcers preview
the show for us and don’t have anything interesting to say.

There’s a cage over the
ring and the announcers have no idea why it’s there.

Goldberg is going to be
on the Tonight Show on Friday and will be making a huge challenge.

Booker T. and Stevie
Ray are in the back with Booker trying to talk Stevie out of the
Black and White. Disco Inferno shows up and says Harlem Heat
reforming would open up a spot for him in the Black and White.
Booker says get out of here and Disco thinks it’s a “brother”
thing. Mr. T. doesn’t take kindly to this.

The Blonde, wearing a
cut off top and white shorts, is in the hotel room when the cameraman
comes in. He hands her a taser and she says his meeting with Scott
must have gone well. The Blonde takes the taser and says she’s very
experienced with it. They sit down on the bed and she asks if he
wants to play while holding up the stun gun.

We see the start of
Kanyon and Raven’s shopping trip for the third time in two weeks.

Here’s Disco to the
Wolfpack music with something to say. He introduces us to one of his
childhood heroes. The man is a legend, an icon and the United States
Champion, the Rowdy Scot. It’s Scott Hall in a kilt over jeans.
Hall officially names Disco a member of the Wolfpack and announces
Disco vs. Booker T. for Sunday. Disco says Booker has been in WCW
for six years and is still on the first rung of the ladder of
success. On Sunday, Booker can only hope to contain him. Hall says
Piper is shining up the US Title for a big star who unlike Piper is
all man. He rips off the kilt and that’s that.

Raven and Kanyon take
money out of the bank. Is there any reason for us to see these
segments again?

Chavo Guerrero Jr.
vs. Lash Leroux

They start fast with
Chavo running Lash down with a shoulder but gets caught in an armbar.
We cut to the back to see a limousine arriving but Rey Mysterio is
waiting to greet it. Lex and Liz are in the limo and as they get
out, Rey slams the door on Luger’s hand and shouts THUG LIFE. Not
quite as good as Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes and it makes
Mysterio look like a criminal. I’m assuming Luger is injured and has
to be taken out of the tag match at SuperBrawl.

Back to the arena with
Chavo hitting a baseball slide to send Leroux into the barricade.
Chavo nails a belly to back suplex in the ring and we hit the
chinlock followed by an armbar. Leroux fights up and drops into the
splits before nailing a clothesline. A northern lights suplex gets
two on Guerrero but he crotches Lash on the top. Leroux gets tied up
on the top rope and choked by Chavo’s boot, earning a DQ.

Rating:D+.
This would have been better had we gotten to see the whole match, but
at least we get to see Kanyon and Raven’s Excellent Adventure again.
Leroux isn’t much to see in the ring but a Cajun guy is at least
something we haven’t seen before. Chavo getting to be more
aggressive as a serious heel is something nice to see as well.

Post match Chavo keeps
hammering away until Kidman comes in for the save. Chavo beats him
up too and hits a tornado DDT off the apron.

Kanyon and Raven go to
Versace.

Clips from Nitro of
Flair being attacked in the field, being saved by the truck driver
and being taken to the arena.

Scott Steiner shows up
and is told Page isn’t expected here tonight.

Kanyon and Raven get
home and Raven’s mom tells him they want him back at work. These are
all out of the way in the first 45 minutes or so, meaning there’s
hopefully something new later.

Video on Bigelow vs.
Goldberg.

Adams and Horace are in
the back and say they’ll go to SuperBrawl because of their size and
power. Basic promo but it got the message across.

Juventud Guerrera
vs. Chris Jericho

Before the match,
Jericho talks about Saturn wearing a dress. He has a surprise for
us, sporting some of the latest Chris Jericho Collection. Here’s
Ralphus in a pink dress and actually looking more human than usual.
We take a break about thirty seconds into the match and come back
with Jericho nailing a clothesline before sending Juvy throat first
onto the middle rope.

Chris tells Ralphus to
kiss Guerrera but Juvy knocks him down out of fear of a bad
infection. Back in and Juvy gets two off a hurricanrana and DDT but
Jericho nails a spinebuster out of the corner. Guerrera flips out of
a German suplex attempt but Jericho counters another hurricanrana
into the Liontamer for the submission. Not enough to rate and did we
really need a commercial in a six minute match?

We’re an hour into this
show and we’ve seen about six minutes of wrestling.

Video on Page vs.
Steiner.

This Week In WCW
Motorsports! They’re still not very good.

Back with Buff Bagwell
in the ring. He’s been cleared to wrestle, but tonight he’s
introducing Scott Steiner. Scott runs his mouth about Page and calls
him white trash but accepts the challenge for Sunday. However he
wants a stipulation: if he beats Page, Steiner gets Kimberly for
thirty days. Scott gets a warm-up match tonight.

Scott Steiner vs.
Bobby Blaze

It’s exactly what you
expect: forearms to the back, a gorilla press, a belly to belly and
the Recliner.

Steiner beats on him
even more after the match.

Rey Mysterio
Jr./Konnan vs. Silver King/Hector Garza

Mysterio hammers away
on Silver King to start but Garza gets in a cheap shot from the
apron. Hector’s standing moonsault gets two and it’s back to Silver
King for a front facelock. Rey easily fights out and makes the hot
tag. Konnan cleans house with the rolling lariats before everything
breaks down. A Bronco Buster crushes Silver King and Konnan’s
X-Factor and sets up a hurricanrana to give Rey the pin on King.
Another short match.

The Horsemen say
they’ll win tonight and bring meaning back to the titles.

Video recapping the US
Title situation leading up to SuperBrawl.

Jerry Flynn vs.
Booker T.

Feeling out process to
start with with Flynn taking him into the corner, only to get caught
with a running clothesline to send him out to the floor. Back in and
a legsweep takes Booker down and Jerry kicks away in the corner.
Disco tries to interfere but Jerry kicks him down off the apron.
Booker slams Flynn down and nails the whip spinebuster. Disco low
bridges Booker to the floor and hits the Chartbuster before sending
Booker back in inside for a spinkick, giving Jerry the pin.

Rating:D.
This was angle advancement instead of a match and thankfully it
wasn’t a clean win for Jerry. Booker deserves better than a match
with Disco Inferno but a young and talented guy getting a significant
push in WCW isn’t something you can expect in WCW. At least it’s a
match with a story though.

Gene brings out Ric
Flair for the hard sell for Sunday. Ric is in sunglasses due to the
attack on Monday. Flair has something he wants Hogan to hear. He
survived Monday night and neither Hogan nor the NWO is cool. Hogan
has a bunch of celebrity friends and he was given a belt to call
himself the World Champion. He goes on about earning his
championships and how he’ll prove what it means to be a champion in
Oakland. There goes the jacket and Flair lists off all of the
legends that a lot of the fans have never heard of. This is the same
promo Flair has done every time he’s talked in this feud.

The Blonde, wrapped in
a sheet, and the cameraman are ordering room service. He hands her
tickets to SuperBrawl. She’s ready to go shopping.

Pinfall or submission
only, no escape. The winners go to SuperBrawl to face
Hennig/Windham. Flair has put this in a cage to prevent the NWO from
interfering. Malenko takes Horace into the corner to start but a
hard elbow to the jaw puts Dean down. It’s off to Benoit vs. Adams
with Chris taking him down into an armbar. An enziguri puts Adams on
the mat again but Benoit charges into the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker
for two. Back to Horace for an elbow to Chris’ jaw and it’s quickly
back to Adams who gets caught in a backslide for another two.

Benoit’s chop has
little effect on Horace and everything breaks down for a few seconds,
only to have Malenko put back on the apron. Chris finally sends
Horace into the cage and makes the hot tag to Malenko. Dean quickly
takes Adams down and goes for the Cloverleaf, only to have Horace
make a save. Everything breaks down for real now and the Horsemen
catapult Brian into the cage. The Crossface has Horace in trouble
but Adams makes the save.

A big boot gets two on
Dean with Benoit making a save of his own. The Horsemen send Benoit
face first into the cage as Vince is unlocking the cage door.
Malenko is sent into the cage as well and Benoit is sent through the
door. Horace and Adams pound on Malenko with a chair but Benoit
easily fights off Vince. He climbs the outside of the cage and kicks
Horace down as Malenko kicks the chair into Adams’ face. Benoit hits
the swan dive off the top onto Adams to go to SuperBrawl.

Rating:C+.
This was fine and they actually got me thinking that the Horsemen
might lose for a little while. It wasn’t a masterpiece or anything
but at least it got some time and had a big spot at the end. The
cage only existed for the big spot at the end and really wasn’t
necessary but after the boring matches I’ve had to put through, this
was a solid match.

Overall
Rating: D+.
This was far more boring than it was bad, but that’s a nice change of
pace after the last two shows I’ve had to go through. It doesn’t do
much for SuperBrawl and the Kanyon/Raven videos are the biggest waste
of time I can think of in years. It was nothing worth watching, but
I’ll take this over the horrible Nitro any day.

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